BMW Motorsport News – Issue 33/16.

Whether in the DTM, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, or countless other championships: week after week BMW teams and drivers around the world do battle for points, victories and titles. Away from the track too, members of the large BMW Motorsport family around the world are also creating headlines. The “BMW Motorsport News” allows us to regularly summarise all the action for you in a compact and informative manner. This way, you are always up to speed.

BTCC: Tordoff celebrates successful chase and victory in Rockingham.

It did not look like a successful weekend was on the cards for the BMW drivers in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) after a difficult qualifying session in Rockingham (GB), but it resulted in an impressive triumph for Sam Tordoff (GB) nonetheless. Having started the weekend leading the drivers’ standings, he began the first of three races on Sunday from 28th position. However, his BMW 125i M Sport was much better than in qualifying and he was able to make up a lot of ground, finishing in tenth place. Tordoff continued to improve in the second race, recording an impressive victory. Rob Collard (GB) produced a similar performance. In the first race, he moved up from starting 27th to finish in 14th. He also enjoyed greater success in the second race. He battled his way through the field like Tordoff, reaching the podium in third place. The best-placed BMW driver in the third race was Collard, in sixth position. Tordoff could only reach 16th on this occasion. Jack Goff (GB) was unable to record a top ten result in the third BMW 125i M Sport.

Blancpain GT Series: debut for ROWE Racing at the Hungaroring.

Four weeks after triumphing at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (BE), ROWE Racing returned to the racetrack for the first time in the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup at the Hungaroring (HU). This was the team's debut at the circuit near the Hungarian capital, and they competed with two BMW M6 GT3s. One of the cars was brand new, as the winning car from Spa is no longer in competition. Philipp Eng (AT) and Alexander Sims (GB), victorious in Spa, were not able to continue racing at the pace they had shown in the Ardennes. They finished in 13th place in Sunday's main race. Their team-mates Nick Catsburg (NL) and Stef Dusseldorp (NL) crossed the line in 15th position. Victory went to Mercedes. 

Japanese Super GT: bad luck for Farfus & co. in Suzuka

BMW DTM driver Augusto Farfus (BR) guested for BMW Team Studie in the Japanese Super GT Championship at the weekend. He supported Seiji Ara (JP) and BMW works driver Jörg Müller (DE), in the BMW M6 GT3 at the highlight of the season, the 1000 Kilometres of Suzuka. However, the race weekend ended early. The team was unable to start the race due to technical problems in the warm-up. Autobacs Racing Team Aguri completed the race 14th in the GT300 class after 158 laps in the second BMW M6 GT3.

Australian GT Championship: BMW Team SRM competing in Sydney.

At the weekend, BMW Team SRM competed in the second race of the Australian Endurance Championship season at the Sydney Motorsport Park (AU). Steve Richards (NZ) and Max Twigg (AU) started the 101-lap race from 11th, and were within touching distance of a top ten result. However, a collision in the closing phase pushed the duo back through the field. The third race of the season takes place on 30th October in Hampton Downs (NZ).

IWSC: Third row of the grid for BMW Team RLL cars in the heat of VIR.

In one of the closest and, without doubt, hottest qualifying sessions of the year in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar (IWSC) at the Virginia International Raceway (US) the BMW Team RLL cars secured the third row of the grid for the ninth round of the series. It was John Edwards (US) who claimed fifth in the number 100 BMW M6 GTLM, while Dirk Werner (DE) in the number 25 car was sixth. The temperatures soared into the low thirties with very high humidity for the 15 minute session that was held at the hottest part of the day, and the nine cars in the GTLM class were covered by just 0.815secs. As the race is only for GT cars, this means they started at the front end of the grid. In the GTD class the Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3s of Michael Marsal (US) and Markus Palttala (FI) (number 97) and  Bret Curtis (US) and Jens Klingmann (DE) (number 96) were ninth and tenth respectively. The two hour forty minute race will not finish until late Sunday evening European time.

BMW M235i Racing: double-header in China.

The BMW M235i Racing competed in two race events at the Chengdu International Circuit (CN) at the weekend. On Friday, Steven Lin (CN), Jack Gu (CN), Terbo Yu (CN) and Ulrich Sanne (ZA) claimed victory in the five-hour Chinese Endurance Championship (CEC) race. The quartet beat off strong competition from the 13-car field, delivering a impressive performance with consistent lap times. On Sunday, the Southwest Touring Car Elite race took place. Four BMW M235i Racings took part in this event. The BMW that claimed a class victory also secured an impressive third place in the overall standings.